Dramatic call for help comes from Libyan Berbers

Indigenous Berbers in western Libya have sent a dramatic call for help to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). They called on the telephone to plead urgently for assistance following the attack and occupation of the city of Zouara on Monday afternoon by tanks manned by Qaddafi loyalists. The Berbers fear reprisals from Qaddafi militants. Several eyewitnesses reported that the attackers, who later also stormed residences, were not Libyans. "Why isn't the international community doing anything to stop Qaddafi's murderers?" they ask in desperation. "What have the Berbers ever done to Qaddafi, that he should shoot us down like this?"

On Monday at 12:00 noon tanks attacked Zouara, near the Tunisian border, and shot at the houses of the civilian population. Prior to the attack, militants loyal to Qaddafi had blocked all streets leading into and out of the city of 20,000 residents to prevent the inhabitants from fleeing. Zouara is known as one of the settlements areas of the Amazigh (Berbers) in Libya. The Amazigh are the non-Arab indigenous peoples of North Africa. There are estimated to be approximately 30,000 Amazigh living in Libya. The Qaddafi regime denies their existence and suppresses their language and culture.